The present invention relates to data center management and file systems, and more specifically, this invention relates to using credit-based flow control for unicast, multicast, and broadcast packets in lossless Ethernet networks.
Currently available lossless Ethernet networks do not allow for credit-based flow control where how traffic flows are prioritized and handled is determined based on an available amount of credit. Instead, conventional lossless Ethernet networks, and more specifically the switches used therein, when an issue or problem arises and a packet is undeliverable, simply discard the packet, and in some instances, retransmit the discarded packets at a later time. This approach adds additional latency to the network when a packet is undeliverable, and may result in some packets being dropped permanently, even in the lossless Ethernet network.
Ethernet is becoming more and more popular and some conventional switched fabric networks may make use of credit-based flow control, such as InfiniBand and other network protocols. However, these credit-based flow control systems are not applicable nor are they capable of being used in Ethernet networks or to utilize existing Ethernet frame formats and protocols. In addition, conventional Ethernet networks require separate multicast routing tables, groups, and addresses to perform packet multicast and/or broadcast functions. This limits their scalability and makes it difficult to extend conventional Ethernet network design to applications where credit-based flow control is used.